SAN DIEGO -- Authorities expect to determine conclusively today that the body of a young girl found dumped off a road near El Cajon is that of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

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The medical examiner removed the body around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

San Diego County medical examiner's office investigator Chuck Bolton said that dental records will likely be used to make a positive identification.

San Diego District Attorney Paul Pfingst said Wednesday night that all the evidence points to the body being that of the second-grader who had been reported missing on Feb. 2.

"We believe that Danielle van Dam's body has been found," he said during a news conference with San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano.

The district attorney said that volunteer searchers found the body east of El Cajon, off Dehesa Road (pictured, right), and that a sheriff's deputy arrived at the scene at 2:40 p.m.

Dehesa Road remains closed between Willow Glen and Harbison Canyon. Click here for more information about the closures.

Pfingst said the remains were of a 3-to-4-foot-tall white girl with blond hair and a plastic necklace similar to one seen on a missing persons poster of Danielle.

Pfingst said one earring was visible, matching the one the second-grader reportedly was wearing on the night she was last seen at her home in Sabre Springs. He said investigators believe the partially decomposed body was dumped at the scene.

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The district attorney said no murder weapons were found at the site, and the cause of death was not immediately apparent.

A police captain and sergeant went to give Brenda and Damon van Dam the news, Bejarano said.

Susan Wintersteen, a family friend, said Wednesday that the van Dams are "going through unspeakable pain and loss right now."

But she said that the discovery of the body "has provided them with the closure that they so desired. Not knowing would probably be the worse."

Pfingst would not say whether the defendant in the case, self-employed design engineer David A. Westerfield, 50, took investigators by the area when he drove with them days after Danielle was reported missing.

Bejarano was thankful for the volunteer search effort that led to the discovery of the remains -- even after Westerfield was charged with felonies that could cost him his life if he is convicted.

"We would always prefer to have a body" before going to trial, Pfingst said, adding that clues often can be found on or near the body.

Van Dam Family Coping With Discovery

Meantime, Joseph Acton, a priest at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Rancho Penasquitos, where the van Dams are members, said a friend of the family's called him and asked him to go to their home Wednesday.

"We prayed together," Acton said. He was asked if the discovery of a body brought the family any closure.

"Closure is a difficult thing to talk about now," he said. "They're obviously in a great deal of pain. They are devastated by this."

Acton thanked "every single volunteer who has led to this point. I want to thank them on behalf of the family, because you've blessed them so much by your love and outpouring."

SDPD Capt. Ron Newman also conferred with the couple Wednesday night.

Afterward, as he walked to his car, surrounded by a mob of reporters and camera crews, he declined to comment on what had transpired, calling it a "family matter."